. So Peter
leans with all his might, in hot haste, on the rope, and away goes the
cream out of the churn, over his head and shoulders, into the well!

'Confound it!' said Peter between his teeth, 'it's clear that I'm to
have no butter to-day. Let's attend to the cow; it's too late to take
her out to pasture, but there's a fine lot of hay on the house-thatch
that hasn't been cut, and so she'll lose nothing by staying at home.' To
get the cow out of the stable and to put her on the house-roof was no
great trouble, for the dwelling was set in a hollow in the hill-side, so
that the thatch was almost on a level with the ground. A plank served
the purpose of a bridge, and behold the cow comfortably installed in her
elevated pasture! Peter, of course, could not remain upon the roof to
watch the animal; he had to make the mid-day porridge and take it to the
mowers. But he was a prudent man, and did not want to leave his cow
exposed to the risk of breaking her bones; so he tied a small rope
around her neck, and this rope he passed carefully down the chimney of
the cottage into the kitchen below. Having effected this, he descended
himself, and, entering the kitchen, attached the other end of the rope
to his own leg.

'In this way,' said he, 'I make sure that the cow will keep quiet, and
that nothing bad can happen to her.'

He now filled the kettle, dropped into it a good 'lump' of lard, the
necessary vegetables and condiments, placed it on the well-piled fagots,
struck fire with flint and steel, and was applying the match to the
wood, blowing it well the while, when, all at once, crish--crash! away
goes the cow, slipping down over the roof, and dragging our good man,
with one leg in the air and head downwards, clear up the chimney. What
would have become of him, no one could tell, had not a thick bar of iron
arrested his upward flight. And now there they are, both together,
dangling in the air, the cow outside and Peter within; both, too,
uttering the most frightful cries of distress.

As good luck would have it, the wife was just as impatient as her
husband, and, when she had waited just three seconds to see whether
Peter would bring her porridge at the stated time, she darted off for
the house as though it were on fire. When she saw the cow swinging
between heaven and earth, she drew her sickle and cut the rope, greatly
to the delight of the poor brute, who now found herself safe again, on
the only sort of floor she liked.